The 2014 '14 on Fire' Tour: The Rolling Stones' Last Bluff Before Eternal Return

Even as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards hit their seventies, the 2014 ‘14 on Fire’ tour was less a victory lap than a defiant middle finger to retirement talk. After a six-year break from full world tours following the A Bigger Bang tour, and fresh off the death of longtime saxophonist Bobby Keys, the band could have easily coasted. Instead they built a stage that looked like a giant tongue-shaped runway and played 30 countries.

Rumors that this was the final world tour ran hot before it started. The Stones themselves fanned the flames by giving cryptic interviews, then snuffed them out. Jagger told the press flatly, “We’re not going to do a farewell tour.” The 2014 tour ended up being the pivot point: it proved the band could still sell out stadiums without the “last ever” gimmick, and it opened the door for the even bigger No Filter tour that followed four years later.